New phone app that monitors blood sugar a game-changer for people with diabetes

QUISPAMSIS, N.B. -

Dealing with a child's diabetes diagnosis is challenging for parents even if you're a pediatric nurse like Melissa Bordage.

Advancements in technology make management much easier and gives parents like Melissa more peace of mind.

Whether he's playing piano, practising karate, or building Lego, nine-year-old Ethan Bordage keeps his cellphone close by.

On it, he can check his glucose levels in real time through the Dexcom G6 management system for diabetes.

"It's a sensor that runs off of a Bluetooth, so there's a little cannula that it goes into the interstitial fluid, and it monitors glucose levels – and it's updated every five minutes," Melissa Bordage said.

It's life-changing technology for the Bordage family.

Ethan lives with Type 1 diabetes.

Melissa says before this, they did finger-pricks between 10 to 12 times a day -- but not anymore.

"I don't have to take finger pokes and I can just look at my phone," said Ethan Bordage.

Melissa Bordage says that means no more waking Ethan up through the night.

"We were waking him up through the night probably twice a night too, just to make sure he wasn't in that low, life-threatening range," she said.

November is Diabetes Awareness Month and this year is special in that it marks the 100th anniversary of the life-saving discovery of insulin.

Further advancements, like the continuous glucose monitoring system, can help to make management easier and give greater peace of mind.

Melissa wants others to know there's hope and help.

"It is lifelong, yes there is insulin there's no cure, but having these amazing innovative technologies, like Dexcom G6 is life-changing for us," she said.

It also gives Ethan more freedom to just be a kid.